


Shenanigans

by oneatatime



Category: Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22554763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneatatime/pseuds/oneatatime
Summary: After all the super sentai teams blast the Zangyack, they've lost everything.Chiaki figures out - eventually, shut up - that's not quite true.
Relationships: Hanaori Kotoha/Tani Chiaki
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14
Collections: Ranger Romance Ficathon 2020





	Shenanigans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweetmuses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetmuses/gifts).



Chiaki worked through the other people and all the mess towards the other five, mindful of Genta at his side.

They didn’t say hello. Didn’t need to. They’d just converged on this place, along with everyone else. Met up during the battle, somehow, got separated now and then, and combined with everyone else to. . . to get rid of all they had. 

Chiaki said absently, “So it’s all gone. Mojikara? All of it?” 

They were surrounded by other teams picking their way through the rubble towards each other. Various exclamations. Various sobbing, too, but it all sounded relieved. Not horrified. He was pretty sure no one had died. Maybe a few had come _back_ , but no one had died. He caught sight of Go-on Blue and gave him a wave. 

Kotoha put her small hand on Chiaki’s arm (which wasn’t small, his arm was totally big and beefy, shut up). She was a mess, and clearly tired, and had never looked more amazing. “Don’t give up hope.” 

“I won’t.” 

Not while you exist in the world, he thought and didn’t say. It was stupid, anyway, right? He had hope because the world was basically a good place, and because if you didn’t have hope, why not just give up everything now and stop fighting. He had hope because of his friends and family, which included the other Shinkengers. You couldn’t nearly die multiple times and also save the world without forming a bond that would last forever, even if Ryuunosuke kept threatening him with more and more elaborate deaths, in haiku, when he kept forgetting to give back Ryuu’s Suica card. (Chiaki had to catch trains a lot. Mr Big Shot Actor could cope for a while.) 

He didn’t hope just because of one person. Kotoha was important, sure. But it was everyone that kept him going. 

(Even though they’d lost everything.) 

Neechan had a bruise on her temple, and the princess – Kaoru – dabbed something on it. Ryuunosuke and Genta fussed at Takeru, as usual, though Takeru looked no more battered than either of them. Chiaki was pretty sure Takeru wouldn’t have it any other way, for all that he’d just made the world’s smallest eyeroll. 

“Come,” Takeru said. As chatty as ever, that one. They all followed him obediently (and okay, gladly, too) back to the Shiba mansion. 

***

Genta slurped at his tea, then made a face. It was excellent tea, as it always was here, so he wasn’t making a face about the tea. Gen-chan was just as easy to read as he’d always been. Each of them had various bits and pieces of bandages. It was like when they’d only been together for a week. Everything felt unreal and weird and Chiaki kind of wanted to smack his head against the floor to check it was solid. Or to scream, to see if he could hear properly. Or something. But Gen-chan was talking. “We had to do it, though, right?” 

Kaoru nodded. “Of course. If we had not sacrificed all of our powers, then the Zangyack would have won immediately.” 

Genta scruffed his hand through his hair. “What about future problems?” 

“We cannot hoard resources against hypothetical, unknown issues,” Takeru said gravely, and Genta and Chiaki made simultaneous uneasy noises. 

Ryuunosuke bumped his shoulder against Chiaki’s, and Chiaki thought okay, that’s not something that’s the same. Ryuunosuke never would’ve been that affectionate at first. He would’ve blustered at me and licked Takeru’s hand. He's even wearing something that looks like normal people clothes. 

“We can still fight, even without mojikara,” Mako said, and Chiaki found himself nodding along. Neechan was smart. She always had been. “We can still train, and assist to the current teams. Even if we can’t transform.” 

***

They stuck around at the mansion into the evening. Takeru was being bossy in a very unbossy way, like he’d done a lot towards the end. He didn’t bark orders at them, but made it clear through his choice of words and his body language that he expected them to stay – and that they were welcome. Jii bustled around, too, and yeah so his hip was obviously hurting him, but he wasn’t any slower to hand out smiles and shoulder claps and the occasional, “Chiakiiiii!” for old time’s sake. 

It felt like they were waiting for something. But the something had already happened. (They’d lost everything.) 

Kotoha found him mooching around the training yard with his hands in his pockets. She jogged towards him. She had a kind look on her face. He smiled at her, weakly, and then she grabbed a bokken, picked up speed, and swung at his ribs. 

He squawked, sprawled backwards with his side screaming at him - she hit _hard_ \- and came up with a bokken in one hand somehow. He blocked her next hit, and couldn’t block the one after that. She was always so damn strong! But he had a few tricks up his sleeve these days, and he managed to dodge and dive and got in a few hits of his own.

Another ten or so minutes later, the others had all joined them, too. Kaoru, Takeru and Ryuunosuke fought off to one side in a whirlwind of strikes and blocks. Gen-chan helped Chiaki, and Neechan helped Kotoha, and it was one of the most fun things of his life all up until he was flat on his back with Kotoha on top of him.

Then it was one of the most amazing things of his life. Because she smiled down at him so fondly, even though he knew he was redfaced and gasping for breath. She made him feel like he was worth smiling at. And she was so damn cute like this, with her hair messy, with her bokken pushed into his stomach. 

. . . wait. She wasn’t just cute.

She was beautiful.

Not that he needed someone to be beautiful to fall in love with ‘em, but he’d never understood what people meant by it before. Sure, you could see that this person or that person had big eyes or nice hair or a cute nose, and Chiaki was only human. If he saw someone who looked good, he looked at her or him. 

But that never really lasted for him. He was much more interested in how much he could trust someone. He was interested in people he liked being around. If they could cope with his best and worst. How much fun they had together. If they could push each other to be better (and that was new, he’d never wanted that a few years ago), but still enjoy messing around and being stupid. 

He liked people he could get into shenanigans with.

The whole team was like that. Yeah, even Takeru, once they’d collectively managed to remove the stick from the guy’s ass. Takeru was a good guy, and he’d consistently refused to take advantage of his position, and he’d consistently pushed Chiaki to be better for his own sake. He’d consistently believed that Chiaki could get better. 

Same went for the others. They’d all believed in him, and he’d had to step up so no one got killed, and he’d _wanted_ to. He’d bonded with Neechan and Gen-chan quickly, but he’d also bonded with Ryuunosuke and Kaoru. Sure, Kaoru wasn’t really part of the team, but she also really was, even though only Takeru had known it for nearly a year. 

But none of them were Kotoha. 

He could worry about her, and support her, and she liked it when he did so. He could make her feel better. She made him feel better, too, and she always had. Sometimes just by smiling at him, or by being happy when he was in a grouchy pain in the ass mood. Sometimes by encouraging him, and being smart about it. Knowing what to say. Sometimes by trying earnestly to pretty much kill him. 

Being an incredible fighter so he didn’t have to worry about her, like everyone else’d had to do with him at first, that helped, too. 

He could be silly with her, and her giggle was one of the best sounds he’d ever heard in his life. Yeah. Shenanigans. 

Sure, there was all the stuff they’d done while they were active. But also since then. They didn’t see each other nearly enough, but they still got up to nonsense. That whole deal with Kotoha, Takeru and the lemon dumplings. The time he and Kotoha had been locked in the orchestra hole-thingy at one of Ryuu’s performances. The time that he’d rescued Kotoha, Genta, and Mako during the llama incident. The way she’d set Ryuu’s latest death threat haiku to music and had played her flute while Chiaki sang it for Jii, who’d then chased him around the training yard roaring gleefully. 

She was beautiful not just because of the arrangement of features on her face (which was great, sure! She needed to have a face! It made talking to someone a helluva lot easier!) but because she was Kotoha. She was _radiant._

He was in love with Kotoha. He _loved_ her. He probably had for a couple years -

Wait.

That time when her sister’d been sick, and he’d arrived at her front door with a bag of food and an inexpertly-knitted blanket in yellow (shut up, it’d been his first attempt) and she’d been so exhausted. . . and she’d smiled like he’d brought the sun with him. 

That was it. That was when he’d completely fallen for her. Oh. Oh, yes, of course. 

Maybe he should say something to her to make her realise that he’d figured it out, but all this’d passed through his stupid head so fast he wasn’t sure how to express it - 

Kotoha giggled, and briefly, lightly, pressed her lips against his. 

. . . and she also thought a lot faster than he did, clearly, he realised. He covered his burning face with one hand (because she clung to the other, her bokken falling to the grass next to him). 

There was a rustling. He took his hand down to see everyone handing money to Genta. 

“What? I had this month in the sweeps,” he said cheerfully. 

“You brat, Gen-chan,” Chiaki wheezed as Kotoha helped him to his feet. 

Okay, so Chiaki. . . hadn’t lost everything.

They all had each other, and now he had Kotoha, who was pressed up against his side and beaming so hard he could feel it. 

Maybe he could get through this. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, it’d be okay.


End file.
